2011 Chicago Cubs: Career Years for Everyone!

[Gilgamesh]

I think Cubstiny is upon us: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=13088912

Greinke to start season on DL.

[Internet Apex]

I think Cubstiny is upon us: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=13088912

Greinke to start season on DL.

IN YOUR FACE, MILWAUKEE!

[Slaky]

I was leafing through the channels the other day and spotted Ken Burns' Baseball documentary was being re-aired on one of the 12 WTTWs that I receive. I remember watching some of this when it originally aired but not enough to remember details. The episode in question was covering the decade from 1900-1910. As all of you are aware, this is without question the best decade the Cubs have ever had. Not only did they have (arguably) the best team in baseball history in 1906 but they won back to back World Series titles in '07 and '08.

Why is this important? We all know this. But here's why it's important: perspective. See in the last five or six years I've grown to hate the part of me that likes baseball. The person that used to hope against hope that the Cubs would somehow pull out enough wins to get to the playoffs. Maybe they'd catch a few breaks. Maybe if I yelled loud enough it would somehow help. I used to not get incensed when someone used the term "Cubbies". I used to not think a person suffered from mild retardation when they said undaunted by history that this was going to be the year. Spring used to be a time of hope.

While it's possible I just grew up and became a realist, it's really disturbing to me what has happened here. Luckily I've found solace in this message board because you're all like-minded Cub fans. Yeah, it's a hive mind but to me it's more of a support group. I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you. The best part about this place is how people who bring the anger like LoneStar used to are mocked mercilessly but a wry, sarcastic quip about the hapless Cubs or the awful general manager is met with subdued approval. It's an interesting place to get the hang of and that's why I love it here.

Thing is, watching that documentary, I missed the old fan in me. The old us, I assume. I realized, for the first time in a long time, just how long ago that last World Series title was. You don't really think too much about it when someone says 102 years. Your eyes roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Until you see the pictures. Until you hear the stories. Until you see the still frames of Polo Grounds sitting beside Coogan's Bluff, fans storming the field as Johnny Evers tries to retrieve the ball to complete the force out at second that would propel the Cubs to the NL Pennant and eventual world title.

That was over one hundred years ago. At that time Rube Waddell, an actual mentally-retarded person, was pitching in the major leagues because they couldn't diagnose a retard. That's amazing. Black people had to play on their own teams. Fans basically sat on the field of play. The Cubs best pitcher had three fucking fingers on his pitching hand. In 1904, Jack Chesbro won forty-one games in a season. To understand just how long ago this was you have to understand what was going on peripherally not just that the Cubs won a championship. It may as well have been a different sport.

And now here we are bitter and angry. One hundred percent convinced that the Cubs will not only fail this year but next year. And the year after that. I don't expect anyone to change their minds. I don't expect that I'll change my mind. I expect failure and I'll protect myself from it the way I always do. Even if the Cubs are improbably leading the division in August or September. Even if they make the playoffs. I will set myself staunchly against success and expect the worst to happen.

I guess that's just what we do here. Baseball used to be fun.

[Quality Start Machine]

Thing is, Cub fans are probably more segregated than any other group that supports any other team. Mainly because there's no one thing other than the uniform of the Chicago Cubs that unites us. These aren't the Cubs of Frank Chance, Charlie Grimm, Phil Cavaretta, Ernie Banks or Sammy Sosa. We are, as Jerry Seinfeld once said, "Cheering for the laundry".

But here we represent the Cub fan cynic - we believe there is just no way the Cubs will ever win a pennant, let alone a World Championship, if for no other reason than there's no reason to believe they ever will, since none of us (except possibly Stew) have ever experienced it.

In other places, there is the eternal optimist Cub fan, which we enjoy mocking here. These are the people who believe in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if for no other reason than the imaginary (Pennant/World Series winning Cubs) are more comforting than the real (64/102 years).

It's a far cry from the single mindset that unites fans of other teams like the Cardinals (we're the best fans in the world), Yankees (the World Series is our birthright) or Red Sox (fuck the Yankees).

[Waco Kid]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

[Quality Start Machine]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

[Slaky]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

Or just one Crane Kenney needs to die? I really don't know. Thing is the Cubs can't claim that they won't win because they can't compete financially. They can and the payroll is proof. This isn't a Wirtz situation. And I don't think that the shortcoming of the Cubs in 50's have anything to do with the shortcomings in 2011.

Something has to go right at some point.

[Brownie]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

Joe just neeeds to get cranky.

[Waco Kid]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

I would settle for one of these Rickettses showing some sort of vision/plan, taking control, cleaning house, and starting fresh. Instead we have four Al Yellons running this organization.

[Quality Start Machine]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

Or just one Crane Kenney needs to die? I really don't know. Thing is the Cubs can't claim that they won't win because they can't compete financially. They can and the payroll is proof. This isn't a Wirtz situation. And I don't think that the shortcoming of the Cubs in 50's have anything to do with the shortcomings in 2011.

Something has to go right at some point.

How apt a comparison to Bill Wirtz is remains to be seen, but the Ricketts family has potential - they're churning the cash out of the franchise to the point of fan alienation.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team? It's the reason I keep rooting for the Cubs. I will still laugh at the Cubs shortcomings and wait for the inevitable nutpunch. However, I thought I would never see a Stanley Cup from the Blackhawks, given the level of incompetance before Rocky. If circumstances could finally break right for them, they could break right for the Cubs.

Yeah, but we only needed one Wirtz to die. How many members of the Ricketts family need to die for us to see it happen?

I would settle for one of these Rickettses showing some sort of vision/plan, taking control, cleaning house, and starting fresh. Instead we have four Al Yellons running this organization.

Sounds like someone's calling for Toby to take the reins.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.

[Quality Start Machine]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.  NACHO HELMET!!!

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.[/s]  NACHO HELMET!!!

This makes even less sense than most of your posts.

[Bort]

I know that hopeful Cub fan is still deep down in most of you.

You have to have a hopeful Cub fan deep down inside. Why else would anyone keep rooting for this team?

I don't have a choice.  It's hardwired, like one's procvlivity toward dangerous activities like drug and alcohol consumption.  After a while, once the addiction sets in, the biology takes over.  NACHO HELMET!!!

This makes even less sense than most of your posts.

I corrected the formatting, but it doesn't help.